CCISD should get on with selection of superintendent

Today, after an interval of fussing and finger-wagging over what
some members saw as the premature release of the names of two finalists
for the job, Corpus Christi Independent School District trustees will
meet to decide how to proceed in their search for a new
superintendent.

The point at issue will be whether they should re-start the entire
process - a process some of them believe was compromised when the names
of the two applicants, Stephen F. Austin State University President
Tito Guerrero and Central Falls, R.I., school superintendent Patricia
Watkins, were published in the Caller-Times.

Specifically, some trustees were worried that the publication of the
names might prompt the two finalists to take themselves out of
contention.

With all due respect, the fretful trustees' apprehensions are
exaggerated. While it may have been inconvenient from their point of
view to have the names made public, the fact is that the community has
a right to be kept up to date as to how the superintendent search is
proceeding. And in any case, such information can't be kept on ice
indefinitely.

True, in the early going, a degree of confidentiality is desirable,
even essential, but at a certain point the district is going to have to
let the public - and the press - in on the secret.

The fluttering and clucking after the publication of the names of
Guerrero and Watkins carries with it a hint of the shoot-the-messenger
reflex that public servants and institutions so often display when
pressed by the media.

There is in fact a case to be made for more rather than less
openness in these selection processes - but that is another editorial
for another day.

At this point, it's clear what must be done. Making use of
information and insights garnered during the protracted process of
winnowing the applications, the Board of Trustees should come up with a
choice.

If the trustees have indeed had a change of heart, or if the two
finalists have themselves experienced second thoughts, it may prove
necessary to go back to Square One.

But to proceed directly to that step simply out of peevishness over
the revealing of the finalists' names would be self-defeating and
wasteful.